Hi friend, this is Phil Johnson and you've tuned in to Grace to You, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. For more than five decades, John was the pastor-teacher of Grace Community Church in Los Angeles, California, and he was Grace to U's one and only Bible teacher for that entire time. Grace to U continues to be the media ministry of John MacArthur. During his decades of studying, preaching, and teaching the Word of God, some consistent themes in his pulpit ministry have been clearly seen. Call them distinctives of John's ministry, an outworking of his commitment to the clear, authoritative, God-breathed scripture.
John MacArthur recently went to heaven, and the leadership at Grace to U thought it would be only right to bring you a number of messages that highlight some of John's ministry distinctives. It would be impossible in such a short time to cover all the key themes, but we wanted to hit some of the most significant ones. And today's message is a good example.
So follow along now on Grace to You. Here is John MacArthur to help you see that Scripture is sufficient. Open your Bible, if you will, to Psalm 19. It was many years ago that The Lord introduced me with some measure of depth to this particular psalm. Because I have such a firm commitment to the Word of God, I was attracted.
to this song. It really is Psalm 119 in miniature. It is a profound Testimony to Scripture, to the Word of God. And very early on in my ministry, Thankfully, the Lord allowed me to bury myself in this psalm. And perhaps more than any other specific text of Scripture, this Put in the final bolts locking me down to my commitment to the Word of God.
That has been an unwavering life commitment. It is a It is a strange time in which we live when it comes to Scripture. Through the history of the Jews, Until the modern era. The Jews never questioned the inerrancy of their Old Testament. But it was in the 18th century.
Post-reformation, in the Enlightenment, the ascendancy of human reason. The German skeptics and European critics began to attack the Bible. And here we are a few centuries later. trying to live through the devastating accumulated destruction of a low view of scripture. But it's new.
to the history of the church. Without Being able to find a passage in the Bible in which the Bible gives a defense of itself. The church still, through its entire history to the 18th century, affirmed the inerrancy of Scripture. It wasn't until that assault against the foundations of Scripture. that the church began to crumble.
Tragic reality. That battle was fought. and won by great scholars. The final declaration came in 1978 in the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy. A great statement.
There is no brief section of Scripture that gives a clearer testimony to Scripture's veracity than the Psalm before us, Psalm 19. Let me read it to you. The heavens are telling of the glory of God and their expanse is declaring the work of his hands. Day to day pours forth speech and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words.
Their voice is not heard. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their utterances to the end of the world. In them he has placed a tent for the sun. which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber it rejoices as a strong man to run his course. Its rising is from one end of the heavens and its circuit to the other end of them, and there is nothing hidden from its heat.
The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.
The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether. They are more desirable than gold, yes, than much fine gold. Sweeter also than honey and the drippings of the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned.
In keeping them there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also, keep back your servant from presumptuous sins. Let them not rule over me.
Then I will be blameless, and I shall be acquitted of great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart Be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock. and my Redeemer. God has revealed himself and his glory, and in two ways. First, in verses one to six, he has revealed himself in his world.
And then in verses 7 to 14, he's revealed himself in his word. He has revealed himself generally in his world. He has revealed himself specifically in his word. First, there is a non-verbal revelation, and then there is a verbal revelation. There is an unwritten revelation and a written revelation.
There is a revelation without words, and there is a revelation in words. The theme is unified. This is God revealing himself in these two ways. Looking first of all at the opening six verses, just briefly, because that's not our focus. This is what theologians have called the general revelation of God.
By this means, through his world, he has put himself on display.
So that all can see. God is revealed by the world, the created universe, and all that is in it. And the psalmist wants us to see that. He wants us to know that the heavens are telling the glory of God. All of creation does that, but he picks the macro creation that he knows no one can miss.
You could look at the micro-creation, but then somebody might miss that.
So he takes that which is most obvious, in fact which is obvious to every human who has ever lived, the heavens, the heavenly bodies, and in particular the sun. The sun, the focal point of our existence. The centerpiece from our vantage point of our life. and the universe. Every human being sees, feels the reality.
Of the power of and the glory of the Son, which puts God's glory on display. But as the psalmist says, This happens every day, verse 2. Day after day after day, this is declared. Night after night, this knowledge is revealed. The expanse, verse 1, declares the work of his hands.
The heavens tell the glory of God. He uses verbs of revelation there to say God has put himself on display, revealed, as Paul says, his power and his deity in his creation in the macro way in the universe. And part of it that we are able to see every single day. This isn't in words, verse 3. There's no speech.
There are no words. There is no voice speaking. And yet, this testimony, the line of this testimony, has gone out through all the earth. Everybody on the planet understands the heavens, the heavenly bodies, and in particular, the sun. The utterance that is without words extends to the end of the world because he has put the sun in the tent of the universe to put himself on display.
In verses 5 and 6, the psalmist makes some really astounding statements about the sun. He says the son is as a bridegroom. Coming out of its chamber in all glory and beauty and magnificence and shining brilliance, the sun comes out of its chamber. And it is as a strong man rejoicing to run a course. The sun has a course.
What is this? Nobody in the ancient world will have any understanding of this. What is this? From the vantage point of the ancients, The sun appeared to sit in one place. Then the earth moved around it.
We now know that's not true. You may not know. But the sun is always moving at half a million miles an hour. Always. And it is moving through An orbit.
Around the Milky Way, that is so massive. At the speed of half a million miles an hour, it would take 230 million years to complete its orbit. And it is dragging our solar system with it at the same speed. This makes An atheist. A fool.
Mm-hmm. That's why the Bible says the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. That's not even rational. That's the revelation of God in his world. And it's general in the sense that it's available to all.
In fact, it is so obvious and so available That men are, according to Romans 1, without excuse. When they suppress the truth of God. They're without excuse. And that revelation is sufficient to condemn the world to hell. That universal revelation of God in his world.
Is so clear, so unmistakable, and points to the Creator and His deity.
So that men are without excuse if they do not believe in God. It is sufficient. to damn them. when they suppress that truth. Which is what men all do.
But then we come to verses 7 to 14. This Is not God's general revelation, but this is His specific or special revelation. This is in words. Words that came from the mind of God through the writers of Scripture. This Is this enough?
to save. The revelation of God in the world. Enough to condemn. Enough to damn. The revelation of God in the Word.
Sufficient to save. Sufficient to save. That's why the Bible says there's no salvation without it. There's no salvation without the gospel. There's no gospel without the scripture.
We must have special revelations, specific words that reveal God's will, that reveal God's plan, God's purposes, and God's Way of Salvation. And so the psalmist shifts from the world to the word. In verse 7. And in verses 7, 8, and 9, you have six statements about Scripture. Six.
statements. In a sense, they're parallel statements. Six lines of thought. The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true. They are righteous altogether.
6. Parallel statements.
Now notice. Each of them says, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, of the Lord, six times. The covenant name of Yahweh. God the Creator. is used.
Why? Because scripture comes from God. It is the word of God. It is God-breathed. God has spoken, Hebrews 1.
All scripture is God-breathed. As Paul writes to Timothy. The Lord is the source, so unmistakably. that it's repeated six times so you can't miss it. This is what The Jews always believed, this is what Christians have always believed, that this is not a human book.
It is a divine book.
Now, there are six titles for Scripture here. It is called Law, Testimony, Precepts, Commandment, Fear, and Judgments. There are six characteristics of Scripture. It is perfect, sure, right. Pure, clean, true.
There are six benefits. It restores the soul, makes wise the simple, rejoices the heart, enlightens the eyes, endures forever. and produces comprehensive righteousness. This is an absolutely stunning. Summation.
of the full sufficiency of the Word of God. It is paralleled By the 176 verses in Psalm 119 which expand this. Here is God's own word concerning his Word. Let's start at the beginning, verse 7. The law of the Lord.
is perfect Restoring the soul. This is divine instruction, law, Torah. Mom. Identify scripture as divine instruction. Scripture is God teaching man.
All that he needs to know. to live life to its fullest. This is divine instruction. This is the manual sent by the manufacturer.
so that we know how to live life. to its maximum. A complete explanation of God's will for man's life in time and eternity. That is the scripture. And by the way, all those different titles, law, testimony, precepts, commandment, fear, judgments, those are like looking at one diamond from facets, different facets, different angles.
It's all the Word of God. It has so many facets. That's why you see those same six words repeated through Psalm 119 over and over and over, and they always refer to the Scriptures. It is the law of God, divine instruction, and as such, he says it's perfect. James calls it the perfect law.
The perfect law.
Well what do you mean? Perfect. What do you mean by that?
Well, you say, well, that's pretty obvious. It means that's... Lacking Imperfection doesn't have any any imperfection. That's true. But it's more than that.
This is not perfect as opposed to imperfect. This is perfect. as opposed to incomplete. The Hebrew term has the idea of comprehensiveness. The idea is, one lexicon puts it this way, all sided, S-I-D-E-D, all-sided, so as to cover completely all aspects of a thing.
The Hebrews would use this when they were meaning to say, nothing can be taken from it, nothing can be added to it. It is everything it needs to be. The intent is the idea that it lacks nothing, but more importantly, that it possesses everything. It is a comprehensive, flawless set of instructions completely sufficient for men. For what end?
Restoring the soul.
Now let's stop and talk about soul. That's the Hebrew word nephesh. It's all over the Old Testament, and as far as I could count, It's translated by at least 21 different English words. You can find all kinds of English words in all different English translations, soul. person Self.
Mind Heart, all kinds of things, but they all refer to the inner person. as opposed to the material body. They all refer to the real person, the eternal person. That's what it's talking about. Divine instruction, scripture is divine instruction, fully comprehensive and flawless for the soul, for the inner person.
Now, let me just stop at this point and say the scripture is not intended to create a superficial social morality. The scripture's design is not that. The design of the scripture is not to fix temporal elements of human life. The scripture's design is to target all its power and all its energy right at the inner person. At the soul.
And what does it do? It restores the soul, is the NAS. You may have something different. That verb can be translated about five or six ways. Revive.
Restore, refresh. Convert, but I think the best one is Transform. Transform. In fact, it's such a strong word, it could mean totally transformed.
Now we're getting to the point. The scripture From the Lord is divine instruction. That is so complete that it can totally transform the entire inner person. That's what that one line is saying. It's a stunning Line.
That's just one of six. The scripture. Utterly sufficient. for the transformation, restoration. For The perfection.
The conversion. The salvation of the inner person. The Bible is always targeting the soul. And when the soul is transformed, Behavior follows. in a righteous pattern.
That's why Peter says in the New Testament, kind of parallel to this, 1 Peter 1. Being born again. Born again, that's regeneration, that's a soul transformation. Not by corruptible seed, but by incorruptible, by the word of God. And this is the word by which the gospel is preached unto you.
Transformation, new birth, regeneration comes by the word of God. Paul says to Titus, we are washed. by the regenerating power of the word. The word is the transforming. Tower.
I need to remind us of that. It's not the mechanics of the preacher. It's not the skill of the preacher. It's not the cleverness of the preacher. It's not the strategy.
It's not the slick packing. It is the word. It is the word. What an amazing statement. If you want You're an inner person.
Totally transformed. This is the work of the Word of God. And only the Word of God can do that. Second statement, verse 7. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple.
Testimony looks at Scripture as Divine testimony, divine witness. First, it was divine instruction in the opening line.
Now, Scripture can be viewed as divine witness. It is God giving His own testimony as to who He is and what He wills and what He requires and what He will do. And as such It is sure. It is sure. I remember years ago wandering around in the LA Public Library, and somebody told me how many millions, I forget the number of it, eight or nine million books in the LA Public Library.
And I made the observation, but there's only one of them that's absolutely. True. That's the Word of God. Sure and reliable. In every sense.
Unwavering, unmistakable, able to be trusted, able to be followed. That's That's big Guilt-edge guarantee from God that you can trust His Word. Follow it. You don't need to edit it. You don't need to excise things out of it.
You need to follow it. It is a sure word. Do you remember 2 Peter 1:19? Peter said, Look, I was on the Mount of Transfiguration. I was there when Moses and Elijah showed up.
I was there when Jesus was transfigured. What an amazing experience. I had that experience. It was a real experience. We were with him when he was glorified.
But Peter said, We have a more sure word. And what is that more sure word? It is that scripture which was not by any private origination or interpretation, but holy men wrote as they were moved by the Spirit of God. This is that sure word. In contrast to the Unsure, unreliable.
Opinions of men. And what does this sure were due, it makes Simple people wise. Let me talk about simple. Hebrew language, very concrete. Uh very kind of uh earthy.
Unlike Greek, which tends to be philosophical. When it says simple, it is the root word for an open door. A simple-minded person is a person with the door of their mind open. You hear people say, I have an open mind. And I want to say to him.
Close it. Close it. If you don't have the discernment to know what to keep out and what to keep in, that's not. A positive That's a negative. You hear people say, well, I'm an agnostic.
Really? You shouldn't be proud to be an agnostic because the Latin equivalent is ignoramus. It's the same word. I've never heard anybody say, I am personally an ignoramus. But if you don't know, you don't know.
That's What Enignoramus is. If you have an open mind, close it, would you please, before you destroy yourself? Close it. But how do you know when to close it? How do you know what to let in and what to keep out?
Psalm 1, the whole book of Psalms begins that way. How blessed is the man who doesn't walk in the counsel of the wicked, doesn't stand in the path of sinners, and doesn't sit in the seat of scoffers. How blessed is the man who shuts the door to all of that and keeps it outside. You're not going to be benefited by sitting in a classroom with somebody mocking the Bible. You're not going to be benefited by running around with a bunch of people who live wickedly in an anti-biblical kind of life pattern.
You don't need counsel from Wicked people.
Something to be protected in your life. And it's not your Information. You really need a life lock on your mind. There's no virtue. in exposure to lies and deception.
Psalm 1 also says, You should delight in the law of the Lord. You should meditate in that day and night. And you'll be like a tree firmly planted by the streams of water, which yields its fruit in its season. Its leap doesn't wither, and whatever he does prospers. Shut your brain to stuff that's destructive.
Have some discernment. Where are you going to get it?
Well, the testimony of the Lord is reliable and takes simple, undiscerning, naive, uninformed, unexperienced people and makes them shacham, makes them skilled in living. Again, this is not some kind of an ephemeral idea, this idea of wisdom, such as the Sophos in the Greek. This is again practical. Wisdom to the Hebrew is skill in living. Skill in practical living.
Navigating the world with Wisdom. This book Takes the naive, inexperienced, undiscerning, immature, uninformed, ignorant person whose mind is an open door. And everything comes and everything goes, and it teaches him how to shut the door, close the door. Be discerning. That's how you live skillfully, navigate through the world.
Mastering the art of living is accomplished by the knowledge and application of the Word of God. God is always the source of this wisdom. And he has laid it out. in Scripture. We have here things, all things that we need to know.
All things that we need to know. Sanctify them by thy truth. Thy word is truth. John 17, 17. As babes desire the pure milk of the word that you may grow.
1 Peter 2:2. We have seen the Bible as divine instruction. We have seen The Bible. In its purest form. as having the power to save.
And then we have seen it. but the power to sanctify. Make Undiscerning, naive people, skilled in all aspects of living, this divine testimony can do that. You're listening to Grace to You with John MacArthur. I'm Phil Johnson.
In today's special program, we showcased one of the distinctive themes from John's 56 years of Bible teaching ministry. The title of the lesson, Scripture is Sufficient.
Well, friend, as we remember the life and legacy of John MacArthur, we continue to find comfort and strength in the knowledge that John is now rejoicing in the presence of his Savior, and hopefully you'll be encouraged to know that for however long God sustains grace to you through the support of his people, we will be here unleashing God's truth one verse at a time, and this ministry will always and only feature the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. And speaking of being encouraged, we've been so encouraged by the notes we've been receiving from friends like you. If you have a story about how God has used grace to you in your life, we would love to hear it. It doesn't have to be anything long. If John's Bible teaching has made a difference in your life, just let us know when you drop us a note today.
Yeah. You can reach us by email at letters at gty dot org. That address, once more, letters at gty. org. Or you can use regular mail and write to us at grace to you PO Box four thousand.
Panorama City, California, 91412. Or if you prefer, call our special remembrance phone line at 661-295-6288. You can record a message letting us know how John's teaching has strengthened your walk with Christ. You can also express your condolences to the MacArthur family. If you'd like to leave your message on our remembrance phone line, call us at 661-295-6288.
That's 661-295-6288. Again, if you've benefited from John's verse-by-verse Bible teaching, do let us know when you write. And thank you for praying for John's family and for the Congregation of Grace Church, for the team at this radio station, and for the staff of Grace to You. Your prayers are crucial and in fact Taking us before the throne of grace really is the most important way you can support us.
So, thank you for your prayers.
Now, on behalf of the entire Grace to You staff, I'm your host, Phil Johnson, inviting you to join us for another half hour of Unleashing God's Truth, one verse at a time, on the next Grace to You.
